The present invention relates to a portable information processing apparatus in which a non-contact information medium including a non-contact IC card can be mounted.
One of related arts is disclosed, e.g., in JP-A-11-149536. There is a description in this Publication saying the effect that “a composite IC card, which includes an IC module with an IC mounted therein and having both contact and non-contact type communication functions and an antenna for non-contact transmission, and wherein coils for signal transmission in the IC module and non-contact transmission antenna are arranged to be closely coupled to each other, that is, the IC module and non-contact transmission antenna are coupled by transformer coupling and are coupled in a non-contacted manner”. Another description says therein the effect that “the antenna coil coupled to an external read/write device in a non-contact state is arranged so as not to overlap an engagement portion for the IC module, which is an external terminal region serving as a contact type electrode, an embossing region, or a magnetic stripe region.”
Another related art is disclosed in JP-A-2001-5920. This Publication states as follows in the effect. That is, a portable telephone is provided with an interface capable of data communication with a non-contact IC card, a reader/writer is provided with a function of calling the telephone and a function of performing two-way communication with the telephone, and the card and the telephone are arranged adjacent to each other. The reader/writer outputs a transmission signal for calling the telephone all time, the telephone establishes a two-way communication state with the reader/writer in response to the reception of the transmission signal, the telephone also transmits a request signal for requesting communication to the card in response to the reception of the transmission signal, and consequently, a two-way communication state is established between the telephone and the card.
In this conjunction, there are several standards for the non-contact IC card, one of which based on ISO14443 Standard is widely used because the IC card can be used even at a position away by a distance of several to about 10 centimeters from an external reader/writer (which will be referred to merely as RW, hereinafter).